What makes a successful play-by post game...successful?


Gamer Life General Discussion


I've actually attempted to GM a few play-by-post games in the past, but I'm reluctant to try it again. I have some experience running Pathfinder, but I didn't play or run a lot of 3.5, so sometimes I run into the problem of players knowing the rules better than I do - so I thought play by post would be a perfect way to get some GMing experience that I could use when I actually had an IRL group.

However, I really liked the ability to WRITE dialog and keep the story going that way, versus doing all the improvisational work that tabletop GMs do. I can do that as well, but I have a long way to go before I would consider myself good at it. It's also convenient, and the slower pace allows you to really play it by the book. Which can be good AND bad, I suppose.

Another issue with play by post games has been keeping the game going without everyone either losing interest or dropping out. I really try to keep it compelling for the players - I've made maps, I've established personal connections to NPCs, etc. - Adventure Paths are great - but doing things by the book, they could actually take YEARS to get to the final volume doing play by post games. So you have to cut corners and hand wave, and there are players who DO NOT like that. The other issue I've had is players who create a character, and then realize that they really don't want to spend a long time playing that character - they get bored with the concept. This happened in one of my tabletop campaigns too.

So, for those of you who have run successful (and more importantly, long-term) play by post campaigns, what was the trick? Or, what was the combination of elements that made it successful?


I don't GM a PbP game, but I'm in multiple, and I've been lurking the PbP forums long enough to be able to give you a couple of tips.

First, keep things going, don't lose momentum. A post a day, if not multiples. If you are holding on someone, or if you can't post that day say it. If the GM posts, a player reaction is "Oh, I can't wait for the GM to post/for jim to post what he's doing! I wonder what's behind that door...". If s/he doesn't it's "Where did the GM go"?
This posting guidelines have to be applied to the players, too.

Second: yes, it's going to take a lot. At least 4-6 years. There are a lot of campaigns on this board that, even if they keep a steady posting rate, they're running since 2008 and still have to end (i.e. GM Chris Shackled city. Consider tough that Shackled City takes 2 years even irl.).

Third:pick your players very carefully. You can (and should!) be picky. Don't base yourself only on the character submission, but consider everyone's posting history. Also, ask people's expectation on the game, to know if you are on the same page.

Hope I've been helpful. :)


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I second Adahn's words about a post-per-day. Anything less than that (as the GM) and you easily risk losing momentum. I don't ALWAYS manage a post per day in the games I GM via PBP, but I absolutely try for it, and I'd say I manage it 90% of the time. If you're in combat, try and be even quicker, as a GM-- adjudicate actions quickly, check the board on your lunch break, whatever-- you don't want combats getting held up because a player's asking if there's cover versus his attack, or whatever.

Adahn is also quite, quite right about the fact that PBP is just inherently slow, and also, that you have to pick your characters/players well. I tend to pick large groups for my PBP, i.e., the six-player-side-of-things, so that when someone drops, I don't risk the game derailing like I would if it were a 4-player game. And someone will drop. It's almost a guarantee. However much it feels like things are clicking at the start, it will happen.

Here are some tips I've discovered to speeding up PBP, some of them are probably self-evident, but many people don't use or do these:

1) As the GM, roll initiative. Waiting for your players to roll their initiatives adds a solid 24 hours to any combat and is completely unnecessary, since you can look at their sheets and see their initiative bonus.

2) On the same page: roll their saves. Make sure any weird situational modifiers they have to saves are noted very clearly and prominently on their sheets, so you don't have to retcon stuff because of some strange situational benefit.

3) Soooort-of tied to this: I tend to avoid accepting characters for PBP who have builds that heavily rely on rerolls or immediate actions, because they're a pain to adjudicate in PBP. A stand-out case of this is the Dual-cursed Oracle's Misfortune. Arguably, you should be allowing the oracle the chance to chime in every single round to see whether or not the oracle wants to make you reroll your attacks as a GM... or an ally's attack... or a save... and that's simply ridiculous, in a PBP. An occasional use of this is one thing, but you should work out ahead of time how you're going to handle immediate actions with any player who has that sort of ability. For instance, if the player has a standing agreement that anytime a PC falls, they will use feather fall, that's fine. But that's a simple example.

4) It can be helpful to have a player's attack-of-opportunity data posted at the top of their sheet, so you don't need to wait for them to roll AoOs. You as the GM can roll them.

5) Putting relevant knowledge (and similar) checks behind DC spoilers is a great way to speed up exposition/investigation, rather than waiting for PCs to roll them without prompting.

6) Pick people who enjoy writing. This seems self-evident, but seriously, I've run into so many players who toss in a one-line description of their actions-- 'I cast detect magic'-- and do nothing else... the ability to write out long dialogue, descriptions, internal narrative, etc-- these are the strengths of PBP, and if your players aren't the sort of people who enjoy that, they won't enjoy the game.

7) Either make sure that one PC has a clear role as note-taker and treasure logger, or be prepared as the GM to do it yourself. A communal group spreadsheet is a great idea, editable by all, but someone should still be the default noter-of-things. This saves a lot of time as people don't have to wade through 15 or 30 pages of gameplay to find the name of that one wizard, if it's in a nice centralized place. This applies for tabletop too, of course, but it's a lot easier to remember the name of a guy you heard last week, as opposed to a name you heard six months ago, because sure, it was just three combats ago, but that's six months in some PBP games.

8) Don't start by running an AP. Run something SHORT, like a single PFS scenario (regardless of whether you do it for credit or not), or MAYBE a module. In other words, something you can complete in a reasonable 2-4 months. If you still want to run a big sprawling campaign after that, fine, but know fully what you're getting into first. Use short scenarios as a chance to screen players who will be committed and who will mesh with you.

I'll add more if I can think of any...

The Exchange

A GM that keeps interested and player that post frequently are the main thing. A lot of PbPs fail because the DM disappears.

Keeping the players motivcated is also important. But generally, there are players who are fairly self-motivated when it comes to PbP and getting them in your game is important. I actually would disagree with some of the advice about being picky - you want to get access to as many players as you can. But keep reserve lists and don't be afraid to kick players who don't post, especially if it's the early stages of a game. And be aware that the PC personnel may rotate quite a lot, and that you may have to recruit replacements. Stuf happens in life and even some very good and reliable players may find it hard to commit ot a PbP. In my PbPs I've constantly had to think of ways to write in and write out PCs along the way.

The same goes for the DM too - you may suffer burnout from time to time, and may need to take a rest. When any player, DM or PC, needs a brak for whatever reason, it is really important that this should be signalled in advance, so people know what is going on and whether and when to expect you back.


Players that understand the games is more than interacting with the Dungeon Master, it is about interacting with the other players!


I second Terquem.

Aside from pace, character interaction makes things great, you might see quirks or the start of running gags that way.


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Good points from Adahn, GM Dien, Terquem/Chyrone (yes, I agree on the humor!) on player interaction and Aubrey (had a lot of GMs disappear on me, and a lot without any warning whatsoever).

I love PbP - it has some obvious drawbacks, but it also allows for some great roleplaying and bonding between folk over a long period.

I would agree with the concept of having a large pool to draw from, people do drop out for all sorts of reasons - bored with character, bored with game, real life stuff happens etc… I'm in a PbP where someone had to take time out for personal reasons, then came back refreshed, and now we have lost another for an indefinite period. I myself dropped out of a PbP after finding another player's character distasteful, then organized a return (with a rapprochement with that player and the GM secretly) to surprise the other players.

(I'm in one of Terquem's game - I took over a character that another player abandoned. I do like to write and interact, and even as a single-minded goblin barbarian I'm making her my own, with a personality and motivations. Just wish I knew where the freak we were or why. ;) )

Definitely post as much as you can, in Discussion threads too - if you need more info, or wan to elucidate/describe/illustrate something further. The more we communicate, the more comfortable we feel. I also like to encourage my fellow players, and from time to time, thank the GM for all the hard work they do behind the scenes. Like any shared activity, its the people that make it hard or easy, and a s a game/enjoyment it should [i]not[/b] ever be hard.

Be careful of spamming however - finding the right note can be hard - I left a game because the posting rate was too fast for me (like scores of post a day) PLUS there were many many posts in the Discussion thread that were completely unrelated to the game - which is fine if you have time or the inclination - sadly I had neither.

Pace is hard, both in game and by posting rate. But the most important rule is:

Communicate! Funnily enough, in a game based on communication it often fall short due to folk not being clear. I'm always asking my GM's to clarify stuff - I'm a little obtuse/lack common sense at times, and PbP's can be tricky to explain things clearly in. As long as you are open and honest this should flow freely from GM to Player and Player to GM without ego or insult.

Again, be up front about:
- what you expect from your players and what they can expect from you
- (related to the above) what your house rules are/your Gming style. I admit to leaving a game because the premise was not the same as the game ended up being AND the GM was very strict on rule interpretations and never rewarded any creativity whatsoever, whether they were in the rules or not.
- by all means tell people if you are going to be away ahead of time, or warn the players if you are going to end the game. Same goes for players - we all have busy lives, and don't expect people to be chained to a game, but just the casual common decency of giving people a heads up does wonders to reinforce that you are a group. I'm coming up on a year in one of my PbPs and it really feels like not only a sense of achievement but a bond of friendship, even though I hardly know any of my fellow players, and I constantly thank the GM for the wrk he/she does. poking forward to that anniversary, and anyone here who has been in a PbP for years (Aubrey/Terquem?) will know more about that than a "newb" like me…)

If all else fails, have someone kick in the door. ;) But seriously, another concept is the "rule of three" - if the pace is slow, and three people say they are going to do something then move with that plan. Waiting for all the party members to agree to a proposed plan, if it is not vital to the plot/sensitive to character motives will bog the game down.

As you can see, I like to write. I think I have said enough. Hope any of that was informative and not me wasting your precious PbP time… ;)

Play on!!!!

The Exchange

Also see this thread.


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Some good comments so far. First off, I'll give a few links that may aid your PbP experience, both as a DM and a player:

Related Thread (Painlord's Guide to PbP)
Paizo Campaign Tools Browser Extension (for Firefox and Chrome)

Now then... some comments. To reiterate what others have said: momentum, momentum, momentum. You /have/ to keep the game moving. Part of that is recruiting players who're interested in keeping it moving, but a large part of it falls on you to keep people interested and move things along when they seem like they're stagnating.

On Momentum:
I've written some of this before, but I want to talk about the "slow down and let people participate" fallacy.

Intentionally slowing down a game is a death sentence.

Know your own optimal posting rate, and join/run games with other people who share it. If it frustrates you to come back to the computer and have 5 new posts, don't join a group that posts more often than you're comfortable with. If you do, politely bow out... don't ask people to slow down.

Don't wait to reply to a post. When you read it, reply, even if it's an OOC comment because the actual game is waiting on someone else.

As the GM, don't make a habit of ignoring someone's posts to "give other people a chance to respond". This may sound harsh, but hear me out. Here's what happens: You as the DM post something. Player A, who's really excited about the game, sees that there's a new post and hurries to respond.

Case 1: You respond quickly to player A's response, and you two go back and forth for a bit. Players B and C, who don't check as often, see that there are a bunch of new posts and hurry to read them so they can get in on the action. Momentum has been preserved and encouraged, fast responses have been rewarded, and everybody wins.

Case 2: You read Player A's post and think, "eh, I'll just wait an hour for someone else to respond too". Player A checks back a few times and sees no response, and is saddened. Player B comes along after 45 minutes or so and posts, and you finally respond to both players. Player A reads the response and thinks, "meh... it doesn't matter if I respond quickly because I don't get a response until someone else posts anyway, so I might as well just wait for someone else to respond first." After Player A does that, the other players will start doing the same thing, and you have a stagnant (or dead) game while everyone waits on someone else.

On Duration & Pacing
I'm going to disagree with most of the other posters now. PbPs don't have to be slow, or long. There's been one full AP run on these boards, and I was part of the group that did it. Our time? 120 days. I've since played a whole lot of PFS scenarios in 1-2 weeks... and one in about 6 hours. (That last wasn't something I'd do regularly, but it was /awesome/ and I'd totally recommend doing it sometime.)

APs don't have to be crazy-fast like our S&S game, but you do need to keep momentum going. I'd go so far as to say that 1 post per day (ppd) is too low in almost all cases. It ties in to what I wrote above: if people stop expecting posts, they stop checking as often and you have to wait longer for them to see it when you finally do post. Keep things moving.

Dien had some good time-saving tips for DMing, and I agree with most of what he wrote. I've never had trouble with immediate actions in PbP and I just let people roll AoOs at the beginning of their turn (or while someone else is up in initiative)... rolling attacks should almost always be the player's responsibility, or else you might as well be playing by yourself. :)

Lastly, I'll agree with Aubrey: kick non-posters. In the event that you have a great player who just needs some time and communicates that with you, work with them... maybe their character goes on a solo mission, or maybe you just agree to NPC them for some period of time. Communication, as Oceanshieldwolf said, is paramount.

The Exchange

GM Dien wrote:

1) As the GM, roll initiative. Waiting for your players to roll their initiatives adds a solid 24 hours to any combat and is completely unnecessary, since you can look at their sheets and see their initiative bonus.

2) On the same page: roll their saves. Make sure any weird situational modifiers they have to saves are noted very clearly and prominently on their sheets, so you don't have to retcon stuff because of some strange situational benefit.

I don't really agree with this, although I appreciate it speeds things up. It's probably a question of personal taste in the end. I try to have players play their characters as much as possible - making all their own dice rolls - because I feel it's a bit dis-empowering to do it all for them as a DM (I want to roll my own character's save vs the save or die spell, thanks). If you are playing PbP, it will take a long time. That needs to be appreciated. You can speed things up with stuff like this, but in the end, it probably won't make a massive difference.

EDIT: Yeah, pretty much disagreeing with Oladon there too. It is true that momentum is important, but that can be covered with a post a day. An AP in four months is good going even for a real-life campaign. Most people won't have time to watch the board all day and to post meaningfully that much. Especially if you have time diffference across continents.


Thanks for the great and helpful replies guys! There are a lot of very good suggestions I am going to implement the next time I decide to embark on another play-by-post game.

I did start making it pretty much mandatory that you had to at least post once per day. I also rolled initiative for everyone. Essentially, anything I could do to keep the pace up, yet provide for a lot of detail and fun dialog, I did. I did have a concern when running adventure paths that I was hugging the rail a bit too tightly - keeping the party on track without seeming like you are controlling the players is a tricky thing to do. Requires a "light touch" and some subtlety.

There was a campaign where I got discouraged as A GM and bowed out, but I made sure to let all of my players know. I think making use of the OOC discussion threads worked very well. I tend to be very detail-oriented, and perhaps do it by the book. The campaigns I HAVE finished have usually been shorter modules, like We Be Goblins! for instance.

I also think that player selection is important, so I always hold a sort of draft where everyone submits their characters and backstory. It's not always easy to tell if a player is going to be up for a long-term AP type of campaign, or even if they are going to be a problem. Some of the best players were GMs for other games (go figure). Sometimes players would start out great, then lose interest. I would usually select at least as many alternates as players, after encountering this first hand. I also tell folks to take a look at the actual play by linking to one of my previous games on the forums and see if you like my GMing style.

I really like the format and the flexibility play-by-post games can provide, and I have been debating if I want to try it again, even if I have been a little disappointed in the past. I thin I may have gotten a little inspiration from starting this topic though!

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